"Now Batting #44 Hank Aaron......" As I mentioned in the previous post of this series I will share with you 44 Facts that you may or may not knew about Hank Aaron cause without a doubt Hank makes the set despite playing from 1970 to 1976 during the decade. Now on with the facts let me know in the comments below if does deserve to be in the line-up as well how many of the facts did you know as well how many your amazed that you learned something from this.
1. Henry Louis Aaron (Hank) was born February 5,1934 while George Herman Ruth (Babe) who was born February 6,1895 it was also in 1934 was Babe's last season with the New York Yankees. Somehow both of these players have a lot more in common then you think, keep reading to see what I mean.
2. Henry Louis Aaron (Hank) shares the same first & middle names as fellow Hall of Fame member Henry Louis Gehrig who was a teammate of Babe Ruth. Aaron wore mainly 44 (Even though he broke in the majors wearing 5) while Gehrig wore 4.
3. Hank Aaron started his career with the Milwaukee Braves & ended it with the Milwaukee Brewers. Babe Ruth Started with the Boston Red Sox & ended with the Boston Braves. Basically they started in 1 city & ended in the same city but with a different league.
4. Aaron's first opponent during the regular season in the American League was the Boston Red Sox in 1975. In the Post Season it was New York Yankees for which was in 1957 (75 reversed). Both were teams that the Babe played for.
5. Hank broke into the majors wearing this number as I mentioned before.
6. Hank was elected to a record 25 All-Star games as a player from 1955 to 1975 which includes a stretch from 1959 to 1962 which featured 2 All-Star games those seasons.
7. In 1972 the All-Star Game was in Atlanta Hank was with Braves representing them. Then in 1975 the All-Star Game was in Milwaukee he was with the Brewers representing them to where when they introduced him gave him arousing standing ovation from the fans in his final All-Star game as a player.
8. Hank hit a total of 2 Home Runs in All-Star play. 1971 in Detroit at Tigers Stadium & in 1972 as the formention game in front of hometown fans of Atlanta.
9. Hank played in 2 World Series 1957 & 1958 the opponent each time was the New York Yankees. Both series went to the limited 7 games with the Braves winning it 1957 & the Yankees doing it in 1958.
10. Hank hit a total of 6 Home Runs in the World Series 3 each in 1957 & 1958 respectively.
11. Hank hit 3 Home Runs in the very first National League Championship series 1 for each of the 3 games in the best of 5 series unfortunately the Braves were swept by the Miracle Mets that year it was the last post season that Hank was part of. Another interesting fact both the Braves & Brewers were part of the 1982 ALCS & NLCS that year which was the same year Hank was elected to Cooperstown.
12. As I mentioned in #11 Hank was elected to Coopertstown in 1982. He was inducted with Frank Robinson,Travis Jackson & former Commissioner Happy Chandler. He received 97.8% of the ballots on his first ballot, while Frank Robinson received 89.2% on his first ballot. Jackson was elected by the Veterans Committee & Chandler the same way through the Veterans Committee.
13. Their class hit a total of 1,432 Career Home Runs which is near the top of career Home Runs for any class elected to the Hall. The top Class for most Home Runs the 2018 Class hit a total 1,716 that class consisted of Chipper Jones (468) , Jim Thome (612) , Vladimir Guerrero Sr. (449) , Alan Trammell (185), Trevor Hoffman (2 Not bad for a relief pitcher eh!!!!) , Jack Morris ( 0 what can ya say he pitched in the American League this is why we don't need a DH for stats like this people).
14. Hank has ex-teammates that are in Cooperstown with him. They're Joe Torre,Eddie Matthews, Phil Niekro,Robin Yount,Orlando Cepeda,Warren Spahn,Hoyt Wilhelm,Red Schoendiest,Enos Slaughter
15. Hank is 1 of 12 people who have 2 or more jerseys retired by different teams not counting the universal Jackie Robinson #42.
16. The other 11 are Wade Boggs #26 retired from Boston Red Sox & #12 from Tampa Bay Rays, Rollie Fingers #34 both from Athletics & Milwaukee Brewers, Rod Carew #29 both from the Minnesota Twins & Angels, Carlton Fisk (Did you read about him in the series) #27 from the Boston Red Sox & #72 for the Chicago White Sox, Frank Robinson #20 for the Cincinnati Reds,Baltimore Orioles, & Cleveland Guardians (Indians when he played for them), Gil Hodges #14 for Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers & New York Mets, Roy Halladay #32 for the Toronto Blue Jays & #34 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Willie Mays #24 for the New York/San Francisco Giants & New York Mets, Nolan Ryan(Stay Tuned he is featured in this line-up in the future) #30 for the Los Angeles Angels(California when he played) & #34 for Houston Astros & Texas Rangers, Greg Maddux #31 by both Chicago Cubs & Atlanta Braves, Reggie Jackson (A future post about him in the series) #9 by the Athletics & #44 for the New York Yankees, Randy Johnson #51 by the Arizona Diamondbacks & Seattle Mariners, Casey Stengel #37 by both the New York Yankees & New York Mets, & finally Sparky Anderson #10 by the Cincinnati Reds #11 by the Detroit Tigers.
16. Hank's iconic #44 was first retired after he played his last game in 1976 by the Milwaukee Brewers in October of 1976.
17. The Atlanta Braves retired his #44 in 1977 in my opinion it should have been done in 1974 after he passed The Babe in career home runs at the time.
18. A right-handed pitcher for the Detroit Tigers named Bill Slayback & along with the Tigers radio broadcaster Ernie Harwell co-wrote with Bill singing on the record a song entitled "Move Over Babe,(Here Comes Henry)" the funny thing about the record it was released on Karen Records label #K-714 it was released in 1973 after the season when Hank was 2 home runs short of the record. Also when Bill broke into the majors his jersey was #44 before swapping it out to #14.
19. Vic Raschi of the St Louis Cardinals gave up the 1st of Henry's 755 home runs on April 23, 1954.
20. On April 4th 1974 in Cincinnati off Jack Billingham of Cincinnati Reds in the 1st inning Hank tied Babe Ruth's career record of Home Runs by hitting #714.
21. On April 8th 1974 in Atlanta off Al Downing of Los Angeles Dodgers in the 4th inning broke the record by hitting #715 & Downing wore #44
22. On July 20th 1976 off Dick Drago of the California Angels by hitting #755 the last of his career in bottom of the 7th inning 50 years ago this week.
23. Hank once was quoted saying this: "Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80% of being successful hitter. The other 20% is just execution."
24. From 1962 through 1971 the Braves had 2 Aarons on the roster his baby brother Tommie was a teammate of Hank.
25. Tommie had 13 Home Runs in his Major League career.
26. Hank was married 2 times his first wife was named Barbara Lucas they were married in 1953 & they had 5 children they divorced in 1971 she passed away in 2022. His second wife was named Billye Williams they were married in 1973 up until 2021 when Hank passed away they had 1 child that Hank adopted it was her second marriage as well.
27. Hank was also quoted saying this: "The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor & I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting."
28. On April 27,1971 off fellow Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry in the 8th inning against the San Francisco Giants Hank joined Willie Mays being the only 2 players to have over 600+ career Home Runs & 3000+ career hits.
29. Willie Mays on the for mentioned game in #28 went 4 for 6 that day with zero home runs while Hank went 2 for 5. His other hit was a double also off Perry.
30. Since that for mentioned game in #28 2 players have done it they are Albert Pujols & Alex Rodriguez.
31. Hank got his 3000th career Hit off Wayne Simpson of Cincinnati Reds on May 17th 1970 at Crosley Field in 1st inning of the first game of a double header played that day.
32. 1 month later Atlanta would play on June 21st at Crosley Field for the last time then 9 days later they helped open Riverfront Stadium.
33. Hank of course hit the very first Home Run at Riverfront Stadium in the 1st inning off of Jim McGlothlin it was his #577 of his career. It helped the Braves win the game 8-2 victory.
34. Hank again was quoted saying this: "If I knew exactly what I know now & had it to do it over, I'd be a switch hitter. No telling what I could have done."
35. Hank was 1 of over 10000 torch barriers to carry the torch relay for the Olympic Games that were in Atlanta in 1996. The actual lighting of the Olympic Flame went to Muhammad Ali.
36. Hank finished with 755 Career Home Runs his record in Major League was later surpassed by Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007. Barry ended up with 762 career Home runs.
37. Sadaharu Oh holds the World League record of hitting 868 Career Home Runs mind you all Oh's Homers was playing in the NPB. He surpassed Hank's record on September 3rd, 1977. Oh would play from April 11, 1959 to October 12th, 1980. Oh believe it or not wouldn't have over 3,000 career hits in his career he ended up having only 2,786 (another weird fact Ichiro Suzuki had 3,089 in the Major Leagues & only 1,278 in the NPB).
38. Hank in an interview in 1973 after the season once said: "I don't want them to forget Ruth. I just want them to remember me!"
39. When Hank played in the Negro Leagues he was a shortstop for the Indianapolis Clowns. Where he hit a total of 5 Home Runs in only 26 games.
40. Hank would bat cross-handed when swung the bat. Meaning he would have his left hand on top of his right hand cause he was a right-handed batter.
41. 5 times Hank would lead off as card #1 for Topps sets. 1963 National League Leaders Batting Average,1973 showing the All-Time Home Run Leaders,1974 Honoring him as the All-Time Home Run King, 1975 Honoring Hank as the National League All-Star as well surpassing the Babe & was his last card as an Atlanta Brave he also was the last card in the set showcasing his first card as a Milwaukee Brewer whom Hank was traded to for Dave May on November 2,1974, 1976 Record breaker for most RBIs in his career.
42. Hank once said his idol of the game was the man himself that this #42 is his hero none other than Jackie Robinson.
43. The most Home Runs ever hit in a game was 3 ironically it came on June 21,1959 against the San Francisco Giants. During the game Hank went 3 for 6 1 strike out while Willie Mays went 1 for 5 that day the Braves won the game 13-3.
44. Finally Hank hit 44 Home Runs 4 different times in a season the most he hit was 47 back the 1971 but the times he hit 44 are as follows 1957,1963,1966,1969.
That concludes the 44 things of Hank Aaron, I hope ya did learn something next up in the lineup of this series is Hal McRae by the way were at the halfway mark in this set only 24 more names to mention & who I think should have been in the set of these bats from the 1970s.
I think its fitting that Hank leaves you with a quote especially after reading all those facts about him mind ya he said this after hitting #715 & I have to agree after typing these up "Thank God its all over......"
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